About Ngagpa

In Tibetan Buddhism and Bon, a Ngagpa is a non-monastic practitioner of Dzogchen who has received a skra dbang, a hair empowerment, for example in the Dudjom Tersar lineage. This empowers one's hair as the home of the dakinis and therefore can never be cut. The term is specifically used to refer to lamas and practitioners who are “tantric specialists” and may technically be applied to both married householder tantric priests and to those ordained monastics whose principal focus and specialization is vajrayana practice. However, in common parlance, “ngakpa” is often used only in reference to non monastic Vajrayana priests, especially those in the Nyingma and Bonpo traditions.
Milarepa, wearing the distinctive white shawl (zen) of a Ngagpa

Honorific titles in Tibetan institutions and clergy

28
Jul
2022
Culture, Rinpoche, Vajrayāna
Buddhist monasticism is an important part of the Tibetan Buddhist tradition, all the major and minor schools maintain large monastic institutions based on the Mulasarvastivada Vinaya (monastic rule) and many religious leaders come from the monastic community. There are also many religious leaders or teachers (called and Gurus) which are not celibate monastics and in some cases the lama is the leader of a spiritual community. Some lamas gain their title through being .
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Lukhang Temple mural depicting Dzogchen anuyoga practices such as tummo which work with the subtle body channels

Dzogchen – Tradition of teachings in Tibetan Buddhism

10
Jun
2022
Dharma
Dzogchen or "Great Perfection", Sanskrit: अतियोग, is a tradition of teachings in Tibetan Buddhism aimed at discovering and continuing in the natural primordial state of being. Dzogchen developed in the Tibetan Empire period and the Era of Fragmentation (9th-11th centuries) and continues to be practiced today both in Tibet and around the world. It is a central teaching of the Nyingma school of Tibetan Buddhism and of Bon. In these traditions, Dzogchen is the highest .
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Akong Tulku Rinpoche

11
Jan
2019
Akong Rinpoche, Rinpoche
Choje Akong was a unique figure in the recent .  Along with Chogyam Trungpa, he founded in Scotland, the first in the West.  When left for America it was who oversaw the of the and monastic complex at which has grown into one of the foremost Centres of and practice in Europe. Early Life of Akong .
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